I searched far and wide for lists of best 70s movies of all time. Criteria included the movies being ranked, not just listed, and generally created by groups, whether teams or committees or based on general public voting (like Ranker.com).

I was able to find 19 lists. I took the 19 lists and added all their content into a spreadsheet, noting the rank of every film. The total number was over 1,700 including all the repeats. I experimented with different formulas, trying to balance the value of being ranked high on any list and being included on the most lists. I ended up averaging the rankings each movie got (there were 315 that were on at least 2 lists) and dividing that average by a factor of the number of lists that movie was on. The lowest score meant a high ranking average on many lists. The complete spreadsheet is attached at the bottom.

The movies that were on the most lists (out of 19) were:

  • Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) – all 19 lists
  • Jaws (1975) – all 19 lists
  • The Godfather (1972) – 18 lists
  • Apocalypse Now (1979) – 18 lists
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) – 17 lists
  • Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) – 17 lists
  • Taxi Driver (1976) – 15 lists
  • Alien (1979) – 15 lists
  • Chinatown (1974) – 15 lists
  • The Exorcist (1973) – 15 lists
  • The Godfather Part II (1974) – 14 lists
  • Rocky (1976) – 14 lists
  • Network (1976) – 14 lists
  • The Sting (1973) – 14 lists
  • American Graffiti (1973) – 14 lists

Here are links to the lists I used along with dates the lists were created:

Best-70s-Movies-RankedDownload

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